Commission on Excellence and Innovation in Health

Stroke Statewide Clinical Network

About the network

The Stroke Statewide Clin­i­cal Net­work (SCN) pro­vides clin­i­cal lead­er­ship to improve stroke care across South Australia. 

We sup­port high‑quality, patient‑centred stroke care at every stage, using evi­dence, data and com­mu­ni­ty needs to guide our work. 

The SCN brings togeth­er clin­i­cians from pre-hos­pi­tal, hos­pi­tal and reha­bil­i­ta­tion ser­vices across met­ro­pol­i­tan, region­al and rur­al South Aus­tralia. We work with peo­ple with lived expe­ri­ence, data ana­lysts and the Stroke Foun­da­tion to sup­port best-prac­tice stroke care and research.

Our role

  • Pro­vide statewide clin­i­cal lead­er­ship to improve stroke care across South Aus­tralia, from pre­ven­tion through to community‑based and long‑term care.
  • Define, pro­mote and sup­port best‑practice mod­els of stroke care that are evidence‑based, patient‑centred and equitable.
  • Sup­port con­sis­tent, high‑quality stroke ser­vices by align­ing care with nation­al and state guide­lines, stan­dards and targets.
  • Use data and pop­u­la­tion insights to iden­ti­fy pri­or­i­ties, reduce unwar­rant­ed vari­a­tion and improve outcomes.
  • Act as a cen­tral point for statewide col­lab­o­ra­tion, advice and rec­om­men­da­tions on stroke care improvement.

Our focus

  • Improv­ing qual­i­ty, safe­ty and access to stroke care across met­ro­pol­i­tan, region­al and rur­al South Australia.
  • Reduc­ing unwar­rant­ed vari­a­tion and low‑value care through data‑led improve­ment and benchmarking.
  • Sup­port­ing inno­va­tion, edu­ca­tion and research to respond to chang­ing pop­u­la­tion and ser­vice needs.

Our peo­ple

Professor Timothy Kleinig

Stroke Statewide Clinical Network Clinical Lead - PhD, FRACP (Neurology), FANZAN, MBBS(Hons), BA

Pro­fes­sor Tim­o­thy (Tim) Kleinig is a Med­ical Direc­tor and Neu­rol­o­gist, Neu­ro­science and Reha­bil­i­ta­tion, work­ing at the Cen­tral Ade­laide Local Health Net­work. He is also a Clin­i­cal Pro­fes­sor at Ade­laide University. 

As a com­mit­ted clin­i­cian-researcher, Tim vol­un­teers in state, nation­al and inter­na­tion­al rep­re­sen­ta­tive roles. He was the head of the Roy­al Ade­laide Com­pre­hen­sive Stroke Unit for many years and estab­lished the SA/NT tele­stroke net­work. He is the past-Pres­i­dent of the Aus­tralian and New Zealand Stroke Organ­i­sa­tion and is a World Stroke Organ­i­sa­tion Board member. 

Tim also leads the nation­al Stroke Unit Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion and Nation­al Stroke Tar­gets task­forces and remains heav­i­ly involved in local and inter­na­tion­al stroke research. He is com­mit­ted both to advanc­ing stroke care through research, as well as ensur­ing that the ben­e­fits of these advances are obtain­able to all South Aus­tralian stroke patients.

Sub groups
  • Data, Tar­gets and Qual­i­ty Sub-Committee
  • Edu­ca­tion Sub-Committee
  • Pro­to­col Sub-Committee
  • Reha­bil­i­ta­tion Sub-Committee

Our work

  • Strength­en­ing statewide stroke data and qual­i­ty improve­ment, includ­ing updates to South Aus­tralian Stroke Track­ing and Report­ing Sys­tem and align­ment with the Aus­tralian Stroke Clin­i­cal Reg­istry and nation­al stroke standards.
  • Review­ing and updat­ing the Statewide Mod­el of Care to reflect pop­u­la­tion needs, emerg­ing evi­dence and changes across local health networks.
  • Updat­ing the statewide stroke pro­to­col, includ­ing adding pae­di­atric guid­ance, and mak­ing it a ​‘liv­ing’ doc­u­ment in line with Nation­al Stroke ​‘Liv­ing Guidelines’.
  • Sup­port­ing real-time qual­i­ty improve­ment guid­ed by the Aus­tralian Stroke Clin­i­cal Reg­istry data dashboards.
  • Assist­ing all 6 SA Stroke Cen­tres to achieve Nation­al Stroke Cen­tre certification.
  • Coor­di­nat­ing statewide stroke clin­i­cian education.
  • Estab­lish­ing a statewide stroke reha­bil­i­ta­tion sub-committee.
Key documents and resources

Get involved

To learn more or get involved in the Stroke Statewide Clin­i­cal Net­work, email ceih.​stroke@​sa.​gov.​au.